Go Forth and Multiply: Revisiting Religion and Fertility in the United States, 1984-2008 †

Religions

Casey Borch¹  Matthew West¹ 

[1] Department of Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1401 University Blvd, HHB 460D, Birmingham AL, 35294-1152, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: religion;    fertility;    Protestant;    conservative Protestant;    Catholic;    trend analyses;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rel2040469

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Many studies on the fertility differential by religion have considered both Catholics and Protestants to be equally homogenous groups. Contrary to these studies, we contend that Protestant fertility must be studied in the context of heterogeneous groups. Specifically, conservative Protestantism, with its beliefs about artificial birth control mirroring Catholic teaching, should be examined separately from other Protestant traditions. Using data from the General Social Survey we find that conservative Protestants and Catholics had about the same level of fertility, while mainline Protestants have a fertility rate that is significantly lower than that of Catholics. We also examine the changes in these differences over time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.